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Two Super and Spooky Picture Books

The first one is Ghost in the House by Ammi-Joan Paquette and illustrated by
Adam Record.

Ghost in the House is so much fun. It starts with a Boo! and
a ghost all alone in a creepy house. Or is he? There’s a noise and a clue to
what else might be in the house.

And so it continues until a motley assortment
of things that go bump in the night have assembled. But there’s a final twist
as the monsters encounter something that gives them a scare.

But it isn’t really scary – all the monsters have sweet
smiling faces and seem very happy to see each other. I love the skeleton, and
the monster, and the ghost…well, all of them actually. I can’t help but think
that they would make very cute little toys.

The illustrations appeal to me lots. They’re quite simple,
but with lots of expression. The backgrounds have some nice textures and I love
all the greens and greys.

The words have a lovely rhythm for reading aloud; there’s
repetition and words to have fun with, such as growl and groan. They also build
up to the twist at the end.

Then there's No Such Thing by Ella Bailey.

Oh, this book is just charming. Georgia is a practical young
girl who can find a reasonable explanation for all the strange things happening
in her house. She refuses to believe that anything spooky is happening, as
quite simply there are no such thing as ghosts. Her little black cat isn’t quite so
sure, and we get to see for ourselves who the real culprits are.

I love everything about this book. The story is great;
Georgia blames everyone in the house for the mischief. This is another one that
comes to life when read aloud. The colours are gorgeously chalky and the
pictures have a retro feel to them – maybe a little ‘60s? Anyway, I adore them.

What’s really fun about No Such Thing is hunting out the
ghosts on each page. My colleague and I have poured over the pages gleefully
pointing out ghosts to each other. Children might like it too, I guess!

Both books are coming along to our family Halloween party
later today, and I’m hoping I can persuade Niece Number 1 to read them to us
all. If not, I’ll just have to do it myself!

Ghost in the House is from Walker Books and is available in
paperback. No Such Thing is published by Flying Eye Books and is a hardback. I
bought them both from Foyles.

The story of Lizzie Borden has a whiff of folklore about it, it feels hazy to me, apocryphal perhaps, something half known and uncertain like Washington and the cherry tree or the ride of Paul Revere. Shamefully, I had to Google both the latter two examples to double check they were the events I thought I was referring to. I choose them deliberately though - is it my Englishness that makes these events fuzzy to me? Do these stories live in the American psyche the way Magna Carta, Henry VIII and his six wives, and Jack the Ripper (to select three almost at random) live in mine?
I remember a book we stocked when I was a very young bookseller at Waterstones in Watford that looked at the psychology of children who murder their parents. The copy on the back of the book talked of Lizzie Borden. I remember half wondering about the case, then shelving the book away and moving onto the next armful. But it stuck in my m…

My nieces and nephews and I have a monthly book club, called Book Chase (although it sometimes gains an extra 's' to become Book Chasse). The rules are simple: we all bring something we've read during the last month, talk about it to each other, and eat snacks. We live tweet each meeting with the hashtag BookChase. Sometimes, when we remember, we Storify all the tweets too. This month, we remembered!